A Call of Sanity
by InsideYourDreams24
Summary: Weeks of torture, pain, isolation... can one phone call make everything better? If it's from Face it can. Murdock receives a phone call from a certain Lieutenant while in the mental hospital in Germany. Please review!


**A/N: Hello all! This is Murdock's POV of a fabulous story from HeartMurdock345's Fanfic called 'Phone Call'. The idea is that Face was able to bribe a guard into letting him have a phone conversation with Murdock while they're in their separate prisons. It takes place about a month or two after the team was convicted.**

**Please review!**

**Disclaimer: The entire diologue and story idea comes from HeartMurdock345, bless her creative ideas! ;)**

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I sat in the corner of my room; well, cell was more like it. I was beating my head against the wall methodically, counting off seconds each time to keep track of how long I'd been in here. After about two and a half hours I lost track, but kept hitting my head against the wall anyways; it's not like I had anything better to do. I remember reading somewhere that banging your head against a wall burns 150 calories an hour, _'Well then I must be dropping weight like crazy,' _I thought to myself emotionlessly, _'Extra servings of soup here I come!'_

I shuddered just thinking about it; the food here was nasty. The pudding was honestly the only thing that kept you from starving; the pudding and the mystery meat. Though I'm pretty sure they injected the meat with sedatives. As I began contemplating the actually contents of mystery meat, the beeping of my door being opened made me open my eyes and temporarily stop hitting my head.

"604, telephone call," came the sugary voice of one of the nurses.

"Why do I care?" I called back. The nurse opened my door, sending in piercing white light that stung my eyes and made me look away. When I looked back a small, red-headed nurse carrying a way-outdated phone was walking towards me, her high-heels clicking across the floor.

"It's Mr. Johnson," She said, like that name was suppose to matter to me; like she expected anything to matter to me anymore.

I was not in the mood to be nice, "Oh really? Mr. Johnson? Well that explains everything! Quick, let me clear my entire schedule for the afternoon to take this call!" My voice was absolutely bathed in sarcasm as the nurse slammed my door shut and I heard the noises of several bolts shifting back into place. I sighed, leaning back against the wall. I held to the phone up to my ear,

"What?" I muttered uninterestedly.

"Eh, hello..." stuttered a voice from the other side. It sounded a bit familiar, a doctor maybe? An orderly? A counselor? As I tried to place the voice with someone that would be calling me, recollections of the previous week crept up on me. I shuddered; it had not been a good time. I had attempted to escape six times, and after the sixth one failed and I was punished with electroshock and then isolation, I found myself laughing like a maniac inside the dark room meant for sensory deprivation.

Truthfully, even I didn't know why I had started; all I knew was that after a while I couldn't stop. Eventually orderlies came in and beat me until I didn't have the strength to laugh, but I could still remember it, what it felt like. I had begun to feel something deep inside my mind, something begin to tear: true madness. It scared me more than I let anyone know.

"If this is about what happened last week, then hang up now. I don't want to talk about it," I finally answered the voice on the phone.

"Murdock!" The voice yelled. I was not expecting that... no one had called me by my real name in months. I got scared, was this some test from a doctor? Some kind of new therapy?

"Yeah, so what is it now?" My voice began to crack and my breath hitched as I remembered the last person that had called me by name. A jittery sort of laughter came through the speaker,

"Jesus, Murdock! You don't know... how good is it to hear-" Suddenly it clicked.

Oh my God.

"Holy shit, Face?" I stammered; memories flooded my mind, emotions, thoughts; it was like someone had switched my brain to hyper drive. It was too good to be true.

"It's really me. God, it's great hearing your voice." I barely heard Face's voice come over the phone again as I sat there in a daze, there was no way I could be talking to him right now...

"Murdock? You there?" came Face's voice again. I jolted back to reality,

"Uh, yeah... sort of..." I managed to say, "How'd you... why're you... I'm confused." My brain was racing at a hundred miles an hour and I was scrambling to catch up with it.

"Helped one of my wardens get his son home from battle over in Iraq. He wanted to thank me, so he got this number. You've no idea how much we are both risking doing this," Face's voice sounded much more casual now as I began to look around my cell, questioning if this was actually real or not. I wanted it to be real so, so badly; I wanted to believe that after all this hell my best friend was really talking to me; but I couldn't.

"I still can't believe you're really talking to me. I'm probably hallucinating again, new meds the docs gave me are the cause, I'm sure," I tried to reason with myself. Maybe that wasn't it, maybe I had accidentally knocked myself out hitting my head against the wall; it wouldn't be the first time. Face said something else I didn't catch as I got up with the phone in hand and walked to the other side of my room, forcefully slamming my head into the wall in hopes that I would wake up from this drug-induced fantasy.

My only result was a throbbing pain in my forehead as I moaned and tried again; I would not, _could_ not go on; it was just too perfect, too good, there's no way it could be real. After a few more slams Face's voice echoed from the phone in my hand,

"_Stop that, Murdock! Stop and listen to me right now."_ I stopped reflexively, deciding that if I couldn't wake myself up, I would just stay in this state forever. I stopped hitting my head and sank to the floor, rubbing my temples,

"How can I believe you?" I asked Face, or whoever it was, "It sounds like Face, but... it's just not possible."

"Because you know I would never lie to you. You know you can always trust me. Now is no exception, this is really me and I am really talking to you."

I felt my throat tighten; this really was Face. This was real. I was talking to my best friend in the whole world. There were a thousand things I wanted to say, wanted to do; but all of them seemed to be behind the lump in my throat.

"I got your letter," I said lamely, "How'd you get it through?"

"I'm getting better around here. You wouldn't believe what I've been able to get...besides, it was a female I got to send it out, go figure." Face chuckled. I would have laughed too, but I couldn't. It was so classic Faceman, the Faceman that I hadn't seen in weeks, months, I had lost concept of time. It made me remember how truly alone I was.

"Lucky you. If I'm good, all I get is extra pudding. Welcome to the world of the friggin' crazies!" I yelled; _'stupid rancid soup,'_ I added mentally.

Face shushed me, "If anyone finds out I'm talking to you, then we're both in trouble, got it?"

I sighed, remembering countless times Face or B.A. had to say that when we were on missions, "Yeah, sure. But Face...can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

My throat started to tighten again at the instantaneousness of his response, "Do you think Hannibal's got a plan?" I had wondered it for weeks, believing it for a few of them, but now I wasn't so sure.

I heard Face give out a long sigh on the other end of the line, "I don't know, Murdock. I really don't..." I could hear the sadness in his voice.

"I'm glad you called. I miss you, and B.A., and Hannibal," I said quietly, musing about the good old days when we were together, though they were quickly tainted by memories of _that day, _"I think you're voice, is the best thing I've heard since the day we were...well you know." I tried not to think about it, I really did, but hearing Face, remembering his face and the faces of my team, I didn't know what to do.

"This is Hannibal we're talking about; he's going to come up with something, I know it. Don't doubt him, okay? He won't let you sit in there forever, any of us." Face's voice became so strong, so loyal, so sure of our CO... I just couldn't take it anymore. I let all of the memories flood back, all of the nightmares, all the worries, all the pain. It all flowed through me like I'd been submerged in water.

"I don't really like it here. I just wish they'd leave me _alone_. Stop shocking, forcing pills down my throat, strapping me in straight jackets. I can't stand it, Temp." My voice kept getting weaker and weaker until when I finally uttered Face's name, a single tear dropped down my cheek. I was stunned; I hadn't cried in months, but that was all it took.

Everything started coming out at once, I told Face everything that had happened; the beatings, the torture, the isolation, the jackass orderlies, even the other patients. All the while I started sobbing against my will. Eventually I knew I was crying too hard for Face to understand me, but I was long past caring at that point. It actually made it better, I told Face things I had never told anyone else in my life and he couldn't even tell what I was saying.

"Listen to me, James." I cut off immediately at the sound of my first name, "Any damage inflicted upon you will come back to them. By us. Don't let them break you any more, do you understand me?" _'By us.' _My mind repeated.

I tried to calm myself down, "Yeah..." I muttered halfheartedly.

"I have to go, but I promise you, to my own grave, that we are going to get you out of there. You have not been forgotten, and you won't. Hannibal is thinking about _all_ of us, he cares about _all_ of us. We'll get over to you." Face's words were like my beacon in the middle of a hurricane. Right at that moment I wished more than ever that I could be with them, with my team.

"I...I know. I just...I dunno. I miss you." I sniffed.

"I miss you, too. And, remember what I told you. It's going to be alright, just stay tough and don't give up. They enjoy your pain, don't let them see it. You're a Ranger, and we don't give up that easily." I laughed softly and I could practically hear Face's smile on the other end.

"I know. And you take care yourself, Face."

"I will, buddy. Love you brother, remember what I told you." I smiled; feeling more sane that I had in a long time.

"Love you too, Face. And don't worry, I will."

*Click*

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**A/N: Please tell me what you think, I haven't done points of view in a while. Was it alright? Thanks so much for reading! IYD24**


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